Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - The Carny

And no-one saw the carny go
And the weeks flew by
Until they moved on the show
Leaving his caravan behind
It was parked out on the south east ridge
And as the company crossed the bridge
With the first rain filling the bone-dry river bed
It shone, just so, upon the edge Away, away, we’re sad, they said

Dog-boy, atlas, half-man, the geeks, the hired hands
There was not one among them that did not cast an eye behind
In the hope that the carny would return to his own kind
And the carny had a horse, all skin and bone
A bow-backed nag, that he named “Sorrow”
Now it is buried in a shallow grave In the then parched meadow

And the dwarves were given the task of digging the ditch
And laying the nag’s carcass in the ground
And boss Bellini, waving his smoking pistol around
Saying, “The nag is dead meat”
“We can’t afford to carry dead weight”
The whole company standing about
Not making a sound
And turning to dwarves perched on the enclosure gate
The boss says “Bury this lump of crow bait”

And then the rain came hammering down
Everybody running for their wagons
Tying all the canvas flaps down
The mangy cats growling in their cages
The bird-girl flapping and squawking around
The whole valley reeking of wet beast
Wet beast and rotten hay
Freak and brute creation
Packed up and on their way

The three dwarves peering from their wagon’s hind
Moses says to Noah “We shoulda dugga deepa one”
Their grizzled faces like dying moons
Still dirty from the digging done
And Charlie, the eldest of the three, said
“I guess the carny ain’t gonna show”
And they were silent for a spell
Wishing they’d done a better job of burying Sorrow

And as the company passed from the valley
Into higher ground
The rain beat on the ridge and on the meadow
And on the mound
Until nothing was left, nothing at all
Except the body of Sorrow
That rose in time
To float upon the surface of the eaten soil

And a murder of crows did circle round
First one, then the others flapping blackly down
And the carny’s van still sat upon the edge
Tilting slowly as the firm ground turned to sludge
And the rain it hammered down
And no-one saw the carny go I say it’s funny how things go

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Jack's Shadow

They dragged Jack and his shadow
From the hole
And the bulb that burned above him
Did shine both day and night
And his shadow learned to love his
Little darks and greater light

And the sun it shined
And the sun it shined
And the sun it shined
A little stronger

Jack wept and kissed his shadow “Goodbye”
Spat from their dirty dungeons
Into a truly different din
Shat from their institutions
Into a fully different din
And his shadow soon became a wife
And children plagued his latter life
Until one night he took a skinning knife
And stole into the town
And tracked his shadow down

Said the shadow to Jack Henry
“What’s wrong?”
Jack said “A home is not a hole”
“And Shadow, you’re just a gallow that I hang my body from”
“O Shadow, your a shackle from which my time is never done”
Then he peeled his shadow off in strips
He peeled his shadow off in strips
Then kneeled his shadow on some steps
And cried “What have I done!?”

And the sun it shined
And the sun it shined
I say “Love is blind”
“And is it any wonder?!”
“Is it any wonder?!”

Jack and his damned shadow
Is gone
And though each one of us are want to duly mourn
And though each one of us are want to duly mourn
‘Tis done in brighter corners now
‘Tis done in brighter corners now
Now that Jack’s black shadow’s gone

And the sun it shines
And the sun it shines
And the sun it shines
A little stronger
I swear, love is blind
Ooh love is blind
Yeah love is blind
And is it any wonder?
‘Tis done in brighter corners now
‘Tis done in brighter corners now
Now that Jack’s black shadow’s gone

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Your Funeral... My Trial

I am a crooked man
And I’ve walked a crooked mile
Night, the shameless widow
Doffed her weeds, in a pile
The stars all winked at me
They shamed a child
Your funeral, my trial

A thousand Marys lured me
To feathered beds and fields of clover
Bird with crooked wing cast
It’s wicked shadow over
A bauble moon did mock
And trinket stars did smile
Your funeral, my trial

Here I am, little lamb
Let all the bells in whoredom ring
All the crooked bitches that she was
(Mongers of pain)
Saw the moon
Become a fang
Your funeral, my trial

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Stranger Than Kindness

Stranger than kindness
Bottled light from hotels
Spilling everything
Wet hand from the volcano
Sobers your skin
Stranger than kindness

You caress yourself
And grind my soft cold bones below
Your map of desire
Burned in your flesh
Even a fool can come
A strange lit stair
And find a rope hanging there
Stranger than kindness

Keys rain like heaven’s hair
There is no home there is no bread
We sit at the gate and scratch
The gaunt fruit of passion
Dies in the light
Stranger than kindness

Your sleeping hands journey
They loiter
Stranger than kindness
You hold me so carelessly close
Tell me I’m dirty
Stranger than kindness

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Sad Waters

Down the road I look and there runs Mary
Hair of gold and lips like cherries
We go down to the river where the willows weep
Take a naked root for a lover’s seat
That rose out of the bitten soil
But bound to the ground by creeping ivy coils
O Mary you have seduced my soul
(And I don’t know right from wrong)
Forever a hostage of your child’s world

And then I ran my tin-cup heart along
The prison of her ribs
And with a toss of her curls
That little girl goes wading in
Rollin her dress up past her knee
Turning these waters into wine
Then she platted all the willow vines

Mary in the shallows laughing
Over where the carp dart
Spooked by the new shadows that she cast
Across these sad waters and across my heart